The free market vs. the
environment

And capitalism is as deadly to the
environment as to the workers. Each new environmental
catastrophe shows that private property over the earth's resources
means the earth's ruin. We have
just seen a political crisis over overfishing in the north Atlantic.
The destruction of the world's
rain forests continues. The East Asian boom is straining the region's
water supplies and bringing
other environmental disasters. It's not
that scientists and thoughtful people didn't see these
catastrophes -- it's that marketplace forces are calling the shots. The
marketplace is ravishing the
environment. It's a deadly mixture:
capitalism with the gigantic technological forces of today.

For a
working class trend within the environmental movement, with a
program opposed
to the market measures of establishment environmentalism:
presentation by Joseph Green at the "Capital, History and
Environmental Politics" panel
at the Platypus Convention
(CV issue #48, Vol. 10 #1,
June 15, 2013)

The
sorry results of the Cancun global warming summit of 2010, the
failure of climate capitalism, and the prospects of major change
-- based on a presentation at the January 2, 2011 meeting of the
Detroit Workers' Voice Discussion Group,
with an introduction of November 2011 about the upcoming Durban
global warming summit of 2011
(Issue #46, vol 17, #1, Nov. 15, 2011)

Know who you are dealing
with ... the continuum of
environmental groups
(Chart reprinted from the Corporate Accountability Project, and
discussed in the article "Class trends
in the environmental movement: Not all that glitters is green)
(Issue #45, vol 16, #2, Nov. 17, 2010)

Obama's Katrina: the BP oil spill in the
Gulf
Down with the market measures and establishment environmentalism that
paved the way for this major catastrophe!
(Based on a presentation at the Detroit Workers' Voice Discussion Group
meeting of June 6, 2010)

'Cap and trade'
won't work: the
politicians vs. the environment (expanded and referenced version of a
talk at the Detroit Workers' Voice Discussion Group meeting of Sept.
21, 2008, given under the title "McCain and Obama vs. the environment",
45K
(Issue #43, vol. 15, #1, June 1, 2009)

The coming of the
environmental crisis, the
failure of the free market, and the fear of a carbon dictatorship (the
Kyoto Protocol, carbon tax and trading, direct regulation,
democratic vs. capitalist planning)(by Joseph Green, CV issue #39, vol. 13, #1, January 24, 2007)

Subheads:The
environmental crisis is upon us-- New Orleans, a sign of things to comeFailure of
the free market:
-- The Montreal Protocol and the protection of the ozone layer
-- The Kyoto Protocol and the fiasco of carbon trading
-- The failed balance-sheet of the Kyoto Protocol
-- The carbon tax -- another attempt at a market solution
-- The record of energy deregulation
-- A comparison of Soviet planning to carbon trading and carbon taxesDemocratic
planning and the direct
regulation of production:
-- Major changes throughout the economy
-- Material balances, not "true cost pricing"
-- Large-scale production
-- Mass participation
-- Planning for mass welfare
-- The issue of ownership
-- No lasting progress if there is fear of moving towards socialismWar-style
environmentalism:-- Tim Flannery's nightmare -- the "carbon
dictatorship"

The devastation of New Orleans
(Issue #37, vol. 12, #1, February 22, 2006)